James Fulton (27 June 1830 – 20 November 1891) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in Otago, New Zealand and a cricketer.

Biography

James Fulton was born in Bengal,^[1] and went to New Zealand in the late 1840s.^[2] On 22 September 1852, he married Catherine Valpy, a daughter of one of Dunedin's most prominent and prosperous families. His wife was to become a notable suffragette.^[3] They had three sons and three daughters.^[2] His two eldest sons, Arthur Fulton (1853-1889) and James Edward Fulton (1854-1928) were prominent civil engineers.

He played five first-class cricket matches for Otago between 1863 and 1868.^[4] These were the first five first-class matches played in New Zealand, and scores were very low. He made the top score of the match in the first two matches: 25 not out in the first match, which Otago won, and 22 in the second, which Canterbury won.^[5] He captained Otago in three of his matches.

For many years he was resident magistrate at Outram, a small town west of Dunedin, before taking up farming.^[2] He represented the Taieri electorate from 1879 to 1890 when he retired.^[6] He was one of the commissioners on the Royal Commission into sweated labour in 1890.^[2]

He was a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council in 1891, from 22 January to 20 November when he died.^[7] He was appointed as one of seven new members (including Harry Atkinson himself) appointed to the Council by the outgoing fourth Atkinson Ministry; a move regarded by Liberals as a stacking of the upper house against the new government.